cubanmiamiboy Posted January 1, 2011 Share Posted January 1, 2011 I woke up too late to catch the Vienna's New Year broadcast, but I left the TV on and soon enough the Rockettes show started. I had heard of them, but had never seen them, and I'm LOVING it...!! They look so vintage, but so updated at the same time, and the show itself is so beautiful. Interesting enough, right now they're doing a Nutcracker segment, where the second act divertissements are being danced, and the dancers are bears with tutus..!! Love it...and now I want to see them live... Link to comment
Helene Posted January 1, 2011 Share Posted January 1, 2011 For my entire childhood, a few times a year my grandmother would take a day off from working at my grandparents' store and take me to NYC to see the Rockettes and a movie. Of course, the current crop of Rockettes are the grandchildren of the woman I saw Link to comment
cubanmiamiboy Posted January 1, 2011 Author Share Posted January 1, 2011 Thanks for sharing those wonderful memories, Helene. The show is just done, and it finished with a SPECTACULAR live Nativity scene-(which I just heard has been playing with the same costume design and scheme as it was originally in the 30's, as well as the scene of the wooden soldiers, which dates from 1933). They're interviewing a girl, which is telling about the grueling process to become a Rockette, whom have to be rigorously trained in ballet as well as jazz and tap of course. Oh, I have to go and see it in NYC...definitely! Link to comment
Bonnette Posted January 1, 2011 Share Posted January 1, 2011 For my entire childhood, a few times a year my grandmother would take a day off from working at my grandparents' store and take me to NYC to see the Rockettes and a movie. My mother did the same for me during the period we lived in Connecticut, and those are among the most treasured memories of my life. Many years later, I met a woman who had actually been a Rockette and I almost idolized her for having been one of those goddesses! Thank you so much for those videos, Cristian! Link to comment
Amy Reusch Posted January 1, 2011 Share Posted January 1, 2011 I wonder if anyone here saw the ballet company that used to be in residence at Radio City. Helene & Bonnette, did you see any of their shows besides the Christmas & Easter spectaculars? I read something somewhere that indicated there was perhaps a new show every week... Link to comment
cubanmiamiboy Posted January 1, 2011 Author Share Posted January 1, 2011 My pleasure, Bonnette. Here's the show Grand Finale... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYKRuH4z3IY&feature=related Link to comment
Mel Johnson Posted January 1, 2011 Share Posted January 1, 2011 I wonder if anyone here saw the ballet company that used to be in residence at Radio City. Helene & Bonnette, did you see any of their shows besides the Christmas & Easter spectaculars? I read something somewhere that indicated there was perhaps a new show every week... I knew several dancers who danced with the "Radio City Corps de Ballet", and while their schedules were rigorous, they hadn't been changing shows every week since before the Korean War. In college, I had a couple of professors who had been singers with the house "chorus", which usually only got called in for the Christmas and Easter shows. They did five shows a day, all on the time-honored "Roxy" Rothafel plan, which meant an orchestral overture by the house orchestra, a featured vocalist, a turn by the house's "Mighty Wurlitzer" organ to give the orchestra time to get into the pit, a standup comic sometimes was inserted here to make an even bigger time cushion, then the ballet, and the featured musical number, ending with the Rockettes' kick line. Then the featured film. In some seasons, the number of performances went to as many as eight a day. Some audience members remember that day as the great period of the hall, but most didn't realize that the performers were being paid, in the 1960s, the exact same scale that they had been in 1933, when the stage shows opened. A strike in 1967 led by Penny Singleton, who left retirement to become a union organizer for AGVA, the Variety Artists' union, got pay reflecting the prevailing wage for that kind of labor, but it drove production costs so high that the ballet company was disbanded. Too bad in one way, but certainly better than allowing a slave labor wage to prevail in the modern world. Link to comment
Helene Posted January 1, 2011 Share Posted January 1, 2011 I wonder if anyone here saw the ballet company that used to be in residence at Radio City. Helene & Bonnette, did you see any of their shows besides the Christmas & Easter spectaculars? I read something somewhere that indicated there was perhaps a new show every week... I suspect that she didn't take me to either the Christmas or Easter spectaculars, and I think they did changed shows pretty frequently. Link to comment
Mel Johnson Posted January 1, 2011 Share Posted January 1, 2011 How often they changed shows was more the operation of the film distributors. After WWII, many studios merged, or even folded, especially after TV began taking hold. The management of the house maintained a "quality control" to make sure that the movies they booked were "family fare". They used to rely a lot on the Catholic Film Board in their decisions. During the 70s, they embarked on a policy of G-rated films only, at a time when that content was in decline. Another funny thing about the Hall - the corps de ballet's choreographer/director for awhile was Marc Platt, at the same time he was house choreographer for the Metropolitan Opera. If you went to the Music Hall, you could see the same dances, set to other music, that you would see at the Met, attached to an opera. Link to comment
Bonnette Posted January 1, 2011 Share Posted January 1, 2011 Helene & Bonnette, did you see any of their shows besides the Christmas & Easter spectaculars? I read something somewhere that indicated there was perhaps a new show every week... I was 5 and 6 when Mother took me to the shows, and I distinctly remember a Christmas spectacular, not an Easter show...I do not know how frequently the shows were changed, just that we went often by train. I am glad that others with knowledge of the history and timetable of the Hall have given such informative answers. Thank you for the Grand Finale, Cristian - marvelous! Link to comment
Helene Posted January 1, 2011 Share Posted January 1, 2011 I do remember seeing a movie set during wartime -- I assume WWII, like just about everything else from my childhood -- and in it there was a soldier who was taking a bath in a barrel -- no nudity on screen, of course -- and a giant beetle or scorpion was heading towards him, with ominous music. I asked my grandmother, who was from Odessa, what it was, and she told me it was a snake. I was pretty sure it wasn't a snake, but she insisted, and I've remembered that for about 45 years. Link to comment
lmspear Posted January 1, 2011 Share Posted January 1, 2011 Dancers Over 40 has posted their tribute to the Radio City Corps on youtube, There are several segments and the discussion includes dancers from the early years. Link to comment
Amy Reusch Posted January 2, 2011 Share Posted January 2, 2011 "63,840 performances"... "and oddly enough nobody knows we even existed" ... because everyone thought they were the Rockettes doing ballet... That's a LOT of performances! Link to comment
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